I'd go to your State Attorney Geneeral or equivalent of that in your state.
Ours has the record settlement for the country against amazon.com of all things and we're not a big state. That office has always agressively pursued claims against Internet companies. They have something like 20 lawyers in the legal division and 40 in consumer.
I know it varies from state to state but a letter from some lawyer with the name of a state's bureaurecy letterhead of some sort can get their attention.
I've always: (1) gone BBB (2) Atty General's office (3) small claims court. What they do is temporarily convert the court to a regular district court. That doesn't mean I have to have a lawyer as I represent myself. In such cases it helps, but isn''t required in my state, for the eCommerce vendor to have some prescence in the state, if ony a warehouse, but it isn't required. With no storefront, for example, the judge tends to require very FULL and convincing evidence. A receipt or two and a nasty letter wont buy it.
In my last case like this I nailed the online vendor (advertising) and manufacturer on a $50.00 claim. That's $100.00 instead of the 50.00 I had coming, but in my state I can also claim attorney's fees if I have one (no one bothers) and get DOUBLE damages. That means $200. instead of a $50.00 rebate.
Good deal. I'm not so sure. All the hours and frustration leave me thinking I just wish I'd get an honest shake, like I do on most rebate deals, and move on. I can't decide if it's a way of making money, i.e. to be sloppy or have the consumer not know the rebate exists (or forgets to turn it in) or what.
I do know the PR is terrible. They're missing the whole point. They're giving the rebate for some reason, typically to move a new product or reduce inventory, but I'm also a potential future customer. Of course this remains one of the great failings of the Inet versus storefronts, but a lot of those jerks got weeded out during the dotcom bubble bursting and I've been pleasantly surprised many times the last few years. In 1995 service was uniformly lousy IMHO. I think those like Amazon made it because of earlier better service (in part). The fact Ive got an issue going with Amazon right now didnt stop me from just placing another order, however. I think Ill work things out. Seagate and Outpost don't get it.
No more Outpost. No more Seagate. There are too many other "deals" out there.